Microsoft: Changed It's Sky Drive To One Drive

Microsoft: Changed It's Sky Drive To One Drive

 

Microsoft has changed it's Sky Drive name to One Drive from 19 Feb 2014, which has been announced on their official blog: Microsoft One Drive.
  They added new features in this process with an extra storage for free! 

If you already have an account, then everything will be switched, automatically, and all you've to do is head over to www.OneDrive.com and log in. 

If you're hearing the service, the first time, then One Drive gives you a best place for all of your needs, such as photos, videos, and documents, and it’s available across the platforms and devices you use every day like Windows, Windows Phone, Office, Xbox, iPhone, Android phone, iPad, Android tablet, Windows device, and Mac.
 

Below link provides a video overview of what OneDrive has to offer.

OneDrive: The One Place for Everything in your Life [YouTube]

What's HTTPS And Why Should It be Cared?

What's HTTPS And Why Should It be Cared? 

When connect to a website with HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), your browser usually looks up the IP address related to the website then connects to it's web server. Over this connection, the data will be transferred in clear text by the means of back and forth and an eavesdropper, such as Internet Service Provider, Hacker, or Intelligence Agencies may also watch the web pages while you're visiting. So, an eavesdropper is able to see any passwords, Credit Card details or other important data, if those were sent over HTTP. 

The problem here is HTTP doesn't support authentication to the correct website. For instance, you may thought that you've accessed your bank's website; but note that you might be on a compromised network, which redirect to an imposter website, then your passwords, Credit Card details would not be encrypted and secured. So, one can easily eavesdrop on them and steal your personal data. In short, HTTP has problems because they're never encrypted.

 

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) having a lock icon in the address bar, which is an encrypted website connection for secure communication over a computer network, especially with wide range of deployment on the Internet. 

Using HTTPS, and for instance, when attempting log into your bank's website, the web browser checks website's security certificate and verifies it was issued by a legitimate certified authority, which helps to ensure that you're actually connected your bank's real website. After logged in or you'd like to send some personal data such as Credit Card details or any payment info will be sent over an encrypted connection of HTTPS, which prevents the people from eavesdropping of your sensitive data. 

HTTPS is not perfect, too; but definitely more secure than HTTP, and sometimes certificate authorities issue bad certificates, so the web page breaks down.

HTTPS is also provide additional privacy to the user, while working on some search engines. Google's search engine, now, supports the privacy, which prevents the people to see what's you're searching on Google. And, before it was easy to anyone, on the same Wi-Fi network, would able to see your searches.

If a user, for instance, searches something on amazon that encrypted over HTTPS, then the other people wouldn't able to see what's the user is searching or which article he's viewing on amazon. Instead, they may only see that he's connected to amazon.

So, HTTPS websites can be identified through the address bar, where you can see a lock icon and, starts with https://. 

Keep in mind that HTTPS, an encrypted and secured connection, is most important whenever logging into something like banks or sending credit card details for an online purchase and other sensitive data. Ensure that you're over an HTTPS site, then enter your password or other personal info.
 
When using an unfamiliar network, HTTPS is also provide some identity verification to the websites, which helps to ensure that you're connected to the right website. And note that if the indicators of HTTPS, i.e., lock icon and https://, doesn't appeared on the login page then you may be connected to an imposter website over a compromised network.  

Clever phishers and scammers may realize the peoples, who look for HTTPS indicators on address bar, and disguise them by changing website's favicon to a lock icon that appears in the address bar as to make visual trick. 

However, HTTPS is not guarantee a site is legitimate and just confirms you're using an encrypted, secured connection, which gives some peace of mind that you're connected to a right site.

USB2.0 vs. USB3.0

USB2.0 vs. USB3.0

USB, an integrated Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, is a data storage device that includes flash memory. They are typically removable, rewritable and physically smaller than an optical disc with less than 30 grams in weight. They are often used for the same purposes as floppy disks or CDs were used, i.e., for storage, back-up and transfer of computer files.

Most of the USB flash drives have USB2.0 connectivity with a hi-speed specification of 480 Megabit per second (Mbit/s) i.e., 60 Megabytes per second (MB/s). And USB3.0 offers an improved data transfer rates up to 5 Gbit/s (625 MB/s), which theoretically more than ten times faster than USB2.0. All USB3.0 devices are backward compatible with USB2.0 ports. Computers with USB3.0 ports are becoming common, very popular and newer laptops / desktops have at least one USB3.0 port and generally they're colored blue inside.

In above picture, the port at left is USB2.0 and right side port, colored blue, is USB3.0. USB3.0 port expansion cards are available to upgrade older systems, and many newer motherboards has two or more USB3.0 jacks. 

We should have to know 'how USB3.0 flash drives actually perform in real world!' Are they, really, faster than USB2.0 drives? Bear in mind that these performances are depend on the specific drive. 

Go  tom's 2013 hardware charts for USB3.0 and check out their test of charts, which revealed  speed of scores (in MB/s) for 2013. 

For USB3.0 drives they tested from 11.4 MB/s to 286.2 MB/s.
For USB2.0, showing at the bottom of the chart, between 7.9 MB/s to 9.5 MB/s. 
So, there was a huge speed variation between the both. The worst USB3.0 drive is faster than USB2.0, with only by a tiny bit. The best USB3.0 drive is 28 times faster. The prices also seem cheapest to the slowest drives, while the faster ones are expensive. 

The fastest drives seem to achieve its speed by using 4 channels flash memory instead of single one. So, USB3.0 allows faster transfer speed, but not every drive will take the same advantage with other factors such as flash memory speed, inside the drive, is critical.  

Never believe the speed rates quoted by the manufacturers, as they're often provide exaggerate numbers to mislead. Fake USB flash drives are sometimes sold, claiming to have higher capacities than they actually have. These are typically low capacity USB drives that are modified as to emulate larger capacity (e.g., a 2 GB drive being marketed as an 8 GB drive). When plugged into a computer, they report themselves as being the larger capacity as they were sold, but when data is written on them, either the write fails; the drive freezes up, or it overwrites existing data. 

Many types of USB devices wouldn't perform a fast process even it's USB3.0. It's clever not to pay extra amount to the devices, in which you may plug USB2.0 devices into USB3.0 ports, too.